Culture, cognitive style and consumer response to informational vs. transformational advertising among East Asians : evidence from the PRC
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Asia Pacific Business Review
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Volume
19
Issue
1
First Page
16
Last Page
31
Keywords
advertising, Asia, China, cognitive style, consumer attitudes, international marketing
Abstract
Existing literature suggests that people's cognitive styles vary significantly across nations and cultures, and that East Asians emphasize holistic information processing and are more receptive to transformational advertising than people in the West. Yet, both theoretical rationale and empirical evidence of the effect of cognitive style on consumers' advertising responses are lacking. This study proposes a congruency-activation model and adopts a three by two experimental design to examine Chinese consumers' attitude towards different advertisements. The results indicate that Chinese consumers prefer transformational and integrated ads to informational ads under both low and high involvement conditions. Protocol analysis shows that Chinese consumers engage in more affective processing than cognitive thoughts. Thus, marketers should consider the effect of the cognitive style of indigenous consumers when devising international advertising strategies.
DOI
10.1080/13602381.2011.626967
Print ISSN
13602381
E-ISSN
1743792X
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2013 Taylor & Francis
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Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Cui, G., Liu, H., Yang, X., & Wang, H. (2013). Culture, cognitive style and consumer response to informational vs. transformational advertising among East Asians: Evidence from the PRC. Asia Pacific Business Review, 19(1), 16-31. doi: 10.1080/13602381.2011.626967